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With unexpectedly high demand stressing the availability of tickets for Saturday’s preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys, the Los Angeles Rams have expanded seating to accommodate more fans:
Due to high demand, Rams have expanded attendance for Saturday's preseason game vs. Dallas. Tickets available at https://t.co/9V95MAxdTX.
— Sam Farmer (@LATimesfarmer) August 10, 2016
We will continue to open up more seats throughout Coliseum this week to allow fans chance to attend historic game https://t.co/g2Sandmfer
— Kevin Demoff (@kdemoff) August 10, 2016
It’s the first legitimate marker of the LA market’s interest in Rams football.
We got a sense of the initial exuberance the market had for the Rams’ return when more than 10,000 fans attended day 1 of training camp. Last weekend’s scrimmage was a bit more difficult to parse with less than 30,000 showed up for the first activity at the Coliseum, a weekend scrimmage.
A full crowd on Saturday would set the bar for the swell of interest the city of LA will ride into the Rams’ first season back in the city since 1994. As I’ve often mentioned in these attendance-related pieces, the question is one of sustainability.
As Rams OL Rodger Saffold himself alluded to on last night’s Hard Knocks premiere, if the Rams can’t change course after having played their last winning season in 2003, it’s hard to expect any market to show up to games in full force let alone Los Angeles.
That alone might put more pressure on Head Coach Jeff Fisher to succeed in 2016. And from the sounds of it, Saturday’s crowd might just be an indication of how that pressure will manifest even in a preseason game.